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LEFT: A youthful AshWilliams with Faust's Legend.RIGHT: Swimming daily ispart of the training routine forthe Williams team.BELOW: Williams with kennelstar Wiedersehen.Ash produces aLegend or twoByDAVID BRASCHANYONE who knows Ashleigh Williamscan vouch for the fact he’s “a pretty goodjudge”.And why wouldn’t he be, because Ash hasbeen around racing stables and kennels sincehe was 20, handling horses and greyhoundsthat rank among the best.Now 60, he has a 28-acre property atWoongoolba where he continues to churn outwinners and high-class gallopers.Born in Brisbane, Ash’s family came fromthe Esk area. His father Arnold worked onthe docks and Ash remembers heading off tothe races just about every Saturday when hewas a little fella.Ash went to Camp Hill High and playingcentre or five-eighth was part of the only openpremiership side the school has won.By the time he was 15, Ash was ready toquit school and take up an apprenticeship asa carpenter.But when he had turned 20 he needed asea change and decided to give strappingracehorses a try.“I worked for the late, great Harry Hattenat Ascot who at the time was training suchtop class horses as Prunda, Basalt and SisterWastle,” Ash told The Journal.He stayed there for 18 months beforebeing coaxed away by then premier Brisbanetrainer Fred Best.“Because I had worked as a carpenter, thetrainers loved to have me around to help fixthings for them,” he said.“I even had a stint with Jim Griffiths whohad flying machines like Emborne at the sametime. Those battles between Emborne andBasalt were something to see.”All this time Ash continued to playfootball.He played for Easts until he was Under20, went to Beenleigh for a couple of yearsand at this time met Peter Bellamy who wasplaying in the same league side.“I spent four years in the stables beforegoing back to building and even had a stinton Thursday Island as captain coach of thelocal side and won the premiership withthem,” he said.Ash didn’t give football away until he was32.While working in the stables in his early20s, Ash, like most other stable workers, wasalways on the lookout for a tip.“One day we ended up at Beenleigh dogsbecause a guy we knew had a couple of dogsin and he said they would win, one of themfor sure,” he said.“We went to Beenleigh for a bet, the firstone landed a good bet, and then the secondone won as well.“We thought this was pretty easy, so mycousin Greg Eaton suggested we get agreyhound or two ourselves.”So Ash bought two pups, three monthsold, from Mick O’Callaghan then one of thestalwarts of the industry in Queensland.“We knew nothing about traininggreyhounds, so Mick gave us a crash courseon what to do,” he said.How often does it happen?Those two dogs, Alpine Ruler and FineEmbrace, were outstanding.“Alpine Ruler won 12 races and was justone-tenth outside the track record at Lawnton,and Fine Embrace won 14 races,” said Ash.“We sold Alpine Ruler for 500 pounds.”It was at this time Ash met up with KevinMcDonald who “taught me everything I knowabout muscle work”.It was also a time when Ash ran foul ofofficialdom in greyhound racing. “It was asilly thing but the stewards were going to giveFine Embrace a ticket for failing to chase aftershe had WON a race,” he said.“I got pretty irate at the inquiry and‘touched’ one of the stewards. I got life.”An appeal to a new Control Board sixmonths later saw the ban lifted.In the early 80s Ash and wife Tess andstepson Jason Strauss headed off to Sydneyfor work.“There was more work in Sydney and alot of work for builders so we moved there in1982,” he said.Ash was not meant to train greyhoundsduring his stint in NSW, but happened to getback into the industry by accident.“I was working at Windsor and a guycalled Graham O’Keeffe said he had a matewith a dog that couldn’t win a race,” said Ash.Cosmo Commisso sent that dog to Ash totrain and it started to win. Big spendingCosmo said he would “buy a good dog” forAsh to train.That dog was Faust’s Legend.“He’s won two races at Bulli when wespotted him and Cosmo bought him for$12,000,” said Ash.In all Faust’s Legend started 68 times for29 wins, 27 seconds and seven thirds.In 1988 he downed Rich Marzipan andCity Skopos to win a semi-final of theAustralian Cup at Olympic Park and Cosmocollected $100,000 in winning bets.“He was a fantastic dog and made thefinals of the Australian Cup, Adelaide Cupand Perth Cup,” said Ash.“I met Brian Kutner in Melbourne thatyear. He was there with Daisy Clover whoalso made the Australian Cup final.”While Faust’s Legend was easily the best“money dog” from the Williams kennel, herates Clover Metre the best he has trained.“He won 12 at the Gabba from 558m to704m,” said Ash. “Adios Prince was anothergood dog we had in the early days and hefinished second to Top Simbi plenty oftimes.”Ash brought his family back to Brisbanein 1992 and has pottered about with a fewdogs ever since.But two and a half years ago he decidedto get serious about greyhound racing againand bought his present 28-acre property atWoongoolba.“It was a harness horse property that hasplenty of natural water,” he said.Ash has since put in a huge kennel block,a 400m straight track that is the equal to any,and has plenty of room to gallop pups.Since the move, the winners have flowedfreely. Jason picked out Brother Ron fromTasmania, bought him north and Ashproduced him to win 17 races and up to topgrade at Albion Park.Brother Jay, In Mode, Unravel and thebrilliant bitch Wiedersehen have beencarrying the flag in recent times.“We’ve got Surf Lorian and Lomond pupsto go on with, as well as those in trainingnow,” said Ash who has given up the buildingwork to concentrate on his greyhoundtraining.For such a small kennel, Ash Williamslands plenty of city winners.But then he’s had a great background inracing to prepare him for such success.The (March, 2006) Journal Page 5